enrolling for prep & public v private

hi has anyone started to look at enrolling toddlers for prep year yet? my ds won't be attending till 2012. also opinions on public v private wanted. does anyone also have comments or opinions on gold coast schools (northern end).

hello my ds doesn't start prep until 2012 either. I have put his name down on St Steven's in oxenford last year and just received a letter last week that he has been accepted. I have also enquire about coomera college (also a private school), but they are already full for 2012 entry. Both schools are very well known on the gold coast area. There's one call Livingstone in Ormeau area, my ds goes to the early learning centre there. We are really happy about the centre, but didn't put his name down for the prep, mainly because the school is still new (Started 2002?) and we feel that the resources from a more established school would be better. Personally I would prefer sending my kids to private school, as I went to private school myself, and I feel that kids from private schools are more diciplined, and also more focus on the acdemic studies too.

If you are thinking about sending your boy to private school, I would suggest you put his name on the list now.

Hey there, i was just wondering... my ds goes to prep next year 2011 (i think?) im not sure how the school system works here in Aussie as im from NZ but i have been told that because his birthday is in March and he will be turning 5 then.. that he will be in prep... im a bit tied also about what school to put him in and also the public vs private??? I live in Pac Pines so im not even sure if the schooling here is done by boundaries or whether you can put them anywhere?? Is there any private schools up this end of the coast?? Does anyone know what the deal is with the schools in Pac Pines? Any better than the others? Decisions decisions - oh and when would i need to enrol??? THANKS!

Hi Renabella, yes your son will start prep they year he turns 5. The cut off is 30 June, so kids born after this date must wait until the following year (my son is a sept baby so he will be 5.5yrs when he starts in 2012).

I am in Pac Pines as well. For public schools there are zoned sections so depending whereabouts in pac pines you live you have 2 public school options. I live near wollies/pac pines tavern and our zoned school is pacific pines primary school. Areas towards binstead road / pitcarn road (new section) are mostly zoned for park lake primary school. I have heard that you can ask to enrol in a public school not in your zone but it will come down to how many enrollments they have - don't quote me on that though. For public schools you can enrol a few months before they are due to start prep.

I haven't heard anything bad about pac pines primary school. I've heard the principal is very strict on her staff.

I've heard both good and bad about park lake. some mums think its great - only a small / new school with about 600ish students. one of my work mates and her friend pulled their girls out of park lake though as the didn't like it for several reasons and returned their kids to their respective previous schools.

As for private schools, the only one in pac pines is Jubilee primary which is a mix of 4 religions - catholic, anglican, baptist (i think) and one other. You must have a baptism certificate to enrol and i was told they already have a wait list for 2012 and beyond. the admin staff are very unhelpful but i've got ds's name down just in case i can't get him in elsewhere.

Other private schools are some distance away, St Brigids in Nerang, St Stephens in Coomera, Assisi in upper coomera and coomera anglican in upper coomera. Going the other way, you have guardian angels in ashmore or st francis xavier runaway bay or ab patterson arundel.

Prices differ with private schools. Catholic schools are more affordable than the others listed. Eg an average Catholic school here is approx 2-3 thousand a year whereas anglican schools mentioned or ab patterson are 5-7 thousand a year.

I've got my sons name down at a few schools as i would like him to go to a private smaller school (pac pines primary has 1200 students p-yr7 as opposed to catholic one having 500 in p-yr7). Also would like him to have religious education.

I went on the my school website which will tell you basic info on the school numbers costs etc.

Good luck with your research. I would love to hear where you choose and stay updated with what you find out.

Wow - thanks so much for the info!!! Appreciate your time... well we live Woolies end of Pac Pines, but we are up by the skate park this side of it... so i would imagine then that we would be zoned to Pac Pines primary?? Yeh just from driving past that school it looks like ALOT of children go there and i guess like you i kinda want to my ds to go to a school with a smaller amount of children... I do like the look of Park Lake but now that you said that i'll have to look into that one a bit more... and I didn't realise Jubilee was a private school... im a bit confused though because the private schools you mentioned i noticed are catholic, anglican etc etc... what happens in the case for latter day saints (mormons) then do you know? Are they allowed to attend these schools?

Also you said you had put your childs name down on a few schools - how does that work do i just ring up and put his name down or do you have to go in and fill out forms and have interviews to do that??

I might have to have a look around and see what i find... but thanks so much for your help! I'll let you know what i find but in the meantime if you know my "further" questions please can you let me know...

As far as the waiting lists go, you can download enrollment forms on the different school's websites. Most private schools have an application fee - usually $50-$80 per application. This fee is non refundable regardless of whether you end up enrolling or even if you don't get an interview! So you can end up spending a lot of money putting your name down at too many. What happens is you send off the application form together with photocopies of the relevant documents (birth cert, immunization proof, baptism/christening cert) plus the enrollment fee. Then the schools do interviews (don't know what happens at these yet) and after they've interviewed all the applicants, they send out offers for placements to the successful ones. If you get an offer you then pay the full enrollment deposit - again different schools have different amounts - for example St Stephens is $700 which secures their placement.

The schools I listed were catholic and anglican. Jubilee is a mixture of denominations though. Non catholics can apply to enrol at catholic schools but they do stress that the kids will learn religous education so if these are not your beliefs they wouldn't recommend going there. Pretty sure anglican schools are the same - we are catholic but they didn't say anything about applying at anglican school. There are some schools around that are christian schools and mixed religons go there with the belief in Christ so i'm not sure what you learn in religous education (if they even have a subject/class on that). I know emmanual college carrara is one, livingstone christian college ormeau etc. AB patterson at arundel does not have religous education at all but the fees start at $6700 per year.

If anyone is reading this post in 2012 and they are looking for a private school on the Northern End of the Gold Coast, a brand new private school called Lords (Lutheran Ormeau Rivers District School). the school is situated adjacent to Ormeau Train Station, with it own private school gate directly off Platform 1.

In 2013 Lords will be a Prep to year 9 school
In 2014, Prep to Year 10
In 2015 Prep to Year 11
In 2016, Prep to Year 12

in addition to having a stand alone full service kindergaten called Lords little wonders. (C and K )

Lords have vacancies in all grades from prep to year 9, and thus until year 12 in 2016. the fee's for this private school are a lot lower than St Stephens, Coomera Anglican and Rivermount and there is no waiting list to enter.

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